Tencent-backed Netmarble Games seeks exchange approval for IPO

SEOUL Netmarble Games Corp, South Korea's largest mobile games company backed by China's Tencent Holdings Ltd, on Friday applied for preliminary exchange approval for its planned initial public offering, the Korea Exchange said.

The IPO is expected to be worth about 2 trillion won ($1.82 billion) and is expected between late 2016 and early 2017 to finance acquisitions and investments by the company.

Tencent owns about 25 percent stake in Netmarble Games Corp, making the Chinese firm the third-biggest shareholder in the company.

Netmarble Games had earlier mandated four banks, including Citigroup Inc and JPMorgan Chase & Co to handle its IPO.

($1 = 1,103.6000 won)

(Reporting by Hyunjoo Jin; Editing by Biju Dwarakanath)

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